Covid-19 issues in the official speech text of Malaysian prime minister on the movement control order (MCO): semantic field analysis

Tazudin, Nor Aisyah Hafiza and Che Rodi, Rozita and Saimon, Aminnudin (2022) Covid-19 issues in the official speech text of Malaysian prime minister on the movement control order (MCO): semantic field analysis. International Journal of Academic Research In Business & Social Sciences, 12 (5). pp. 1616-1630. ISSN 2222-6990

PDF (Article) - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (481kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

In 2019, the world has been shocked by the emergence of an infectious virus called COVID-19. Due to the pandemic, the daily lifestyle of the people in the world has changed as they have to practice the new norms. Henceforth, many new terms and definitions that are rarely heard of before began to be used. However, these newly introduced terms might lead to confusion among the people which also could obstruct the messages from the government. Considering that, the researcher will focus on the application of Semantic Field Theory by Ullmann (1963) through the analytical model approach by Al-Attas (2001) in unravelling the meaning of the terms according to COVID-19 issues based on the speech text of the Malaysian Prime Minister on the Movement Control Order (MCO) in order to handle the pandemic. In the theory, five main aspects are being emphasized namely the focus word, key word, interwoven meaning, conceptional sphere and the formation of a semantic field. All of these aspects could unravel the complicated word meaning and at the same time show the real concepts that are tried to be conveyed by speakers and writers in a discourse. This study uses a qualitative approach. Researcher has investigated eight texts of the official speech by the Malaysian Prime Minister relating to MCO starting from 16th March 2020 until 11th January 2021. The result of the study shows that there are four main focus words namely safety, economy, education and health. From the focus words, other key words appear and surround the focus words which then form the conceptional sphere of COVID-19 in the Malaysian Prime Minister speech’s text on the MCO. For further research based on the knowledge about the COVID-19 issues, researcher perhaps can apply this theory directly into the study of other issues of the community.

Item Type:	Article (Journal)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	COVID-19, Semantic Field Theory, Focus Word, Speech Text of Malaysian Prime Minister, Movement Control Order (MCO).
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Languages and Management
Depositing User:	Dr Aminnudin Saimon
Date Deposited:	08 Jun 2022 14:27
Last Modified:	08 Jun 2022 14:27
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/98248

Actions (login required)

View Item